Game 6 pregame: Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, "We know we can win in this building"

Thursday, June 7, 2012 -- Anonymous (not verified)

There's been a lot of talk about the psyche of the Miami Heat since they lost Game 5 to the Celtics on Tuesday. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra has done his best to block out all of the self-described "noise," and struck a confident done when he addressed the media before tonight's Game 6 at the Garden.

"We have a very confident group," Spoelstra said. "We have a very stubborn group in there that, despite all the noise out there, we feel that we should have won the last two games. And we didn't. That's the result. But we did enough good things to win. We know we can win in this building. Everybody in that locker room is looking forward to this opportunity right now."

History doesn't back up Spoelstra's claim, as the Heat have lost 15 of their last 16 games at the Garden. Their lone win during that stretch came in Game 4 of last year's conference semifinals.

LeBron James has had some big games at the Garden, but his teams are just 2-9 on the parquet in the postseason. Spoelstra doesn't expect any of that to weigh on his players tonight.

"None of those other losses have any relevance now," Spoelstra said. "If you want to pull history, we got a big one last year. But again, I don't know how relevant that is. We know we can win on the road. We've done it already in the playoffs, especially in circumstances like this. I love the group that we have. I really do. I love looking in their eyes yesterday at the team meeting and seeing what's looking back at me, and even today's shootaround. These guys love these kind of moments. They don't like how we got to this moment, not at all. But they love these moments."

Surprisingly, Chris Bosh will not start tonight, with Udonis Haslem getting the call at center. Bosh had nine points and seven rounds in Game 5 after missing three weeks with an abdominal strain. Though the seven-time All-Star won't start, he should be able to handle a greater workload tonight. Celtics coach Doc Rivers said he doesn't intend to change his defensive scheme, but conceded that Bosh poses different challenges than the other Heat big men.

"He poses problems, there's no doubt," Rivers said. "We're using Kevin (Garnett) to be like a safety at times. We still have to do that, basically. And that means Bosh will be open. We are just going to have to rotate more with other guys. Obviously, that weakens your defense in some ways, but we have no choice. We have to do that. I think it's really important for the traps to continue by Kevin. It just is going to add another guy in rotation, which is something we haven't had to do, and with Bosh, we probably will have to do if he gets it going."

Rivers said he doesn't care how his players look at tonight's game as they approach it with a sense of urgency. All of the pregame talk only goes so far.

"At the end of the day, we have to play," Rivers said. "And whatever gets our guys going, then that's great. At the end of the day, when they throw the ball up, all that stuff is forgotten. You have to complete, you have to execute and you have to play together."